The successes and failures of your average girl trying to make a vegan life for herself.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

To Send Back or Not to Send Back ... That is the Question

Saturday night my boyfriend and I went rock climbing (we have a membership to a climbing gym) and decided to get one of our favorite fast food indulgences for dinner - Baja Fresh (really our only fast food indulgences revolve around Mexican - Baja Fresh, Chipotle, Qdoba). This was my first foray into vegan fast food or vegan Mexican, but I thought I'd come up with a brilliant plan of attack (and cheap too).

I ordered the bean and rice plate with pinto beans (the beans at Baja Fresh are not cooked with animal products - nor are the chips, which is something to watch out for at a lot of places) and a side of guacamole. My brilliant plan was to create a Mexican plate of my own with the rice, beans, guac, the free chips they give you while you wait, and jalapenos and salsa from the salsa bar. Sounds great, right? Well, it was until I got my order and they had sprinkled a small amount of cheese on the beans (really, a very small amount, but still obviously intentional - sorry, no picture).

So what was I to do? Obviously I could go up and say I needed beans with no cheese and get a new plate. But all that would accomplish is them tossing out the cheesed beans. Maybe I fall on this a lot, but I don't see how that helps the cow. It will help the cow next time when I know to ask them not to cheese the beans. But when it came down to tossing the food or eating it, I went ahead and ate it. I knew it wouldn't make me sick (and it didn't) and I've learned what I need to do when I order next time. And I don't really have any problem with this decision. My only problem is that, yet again, I've failed to live up to the label of "vegan." But I'll probably never live up to the label. And really what I need to do is learn to live with that.